


Red

by WhatWouldLilyDo



Series: Nursey Week [7]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Interviews, M/M, NHL!Nursey, Nursey Week, samwell daily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 12:40:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9727295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatWouldLilyDo/pseuds/WhatWouldLilyDo
Summary: Day 7 ofNursey Week!Prompt: Memories or RedSAMWELL DAILY (April 2017)Sports (page 7) - Exclusive interview with junior, Derek Nurse, as he talks about joining the NHL, his love for his Samwell team, and following in Jack Zimmermann's footsteps.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone who’s been reading these. It’s been so much fun. Happy Nursey’s-birthday-day!

_This reporter for the Daily is counting her blessings today that she sat next to the Samwell Men’s Hockey (SMH) goalie, Chris Chow, in Physics this year. Not only did he brighten up an otherwise torturous class, but it was with his help that we secured an exclusive interview with the NHL’s newest Samwell star, Derek Nurse. The soon-to-be Red Wings’ rookie shows up in a jersey he says came through the post that morning. It’s not the one he will eventually wear on the ice, but a gift from the Michiganian team following his signing. It’s a shockingly bright shade of red, and it’s accompanied with the green hat the defenseman is rarely seen without, and a beard which rivals the one he grew during the playoffs this year. He gets a soy amaretto latte, and turns his phone to silent before we start._

**(SD) Thanks for coming here today! How does it feel to be an NHL player?  
** (DN) It’s surreal. Everyone else is getting ready to go into senior year and I’m moving to Detroit. Of all of us to go professional, I didn’t think it would be me first. I mean, you’ve got Chowder _[Chris Chow, rising senior and SMH alternate captain]_ who’s a mad genius in the goal, and Will - Dex _[William Poindexter, rising senior and incoming SMH captain]_ \- who… Well, you know, we’ve been d-partners since we were frogs. He’s gonna make a great captain. Of course, it probably would have been Chowder if half the team hadn’t forgotten when they were voting that NCAA rules about goalies being captains are different to NHL, but Will’s gonna make a great captain.

 **And, of course, there’s more to your relationship with him than just on the ice…**  
Yeah, sure. He’ll hate it if I wax poetic in an interview, though. I better start practicing not saying anything about him for when I’m dealing with paps. Besides, anyone who had that Geography class with us last semester is sick of us.

 **So we’re not going to talk about being the first openly LGBTQIA+ player to be signed?**  
It’s not that big a deal. Jack’s out.  
_[Jack Zimmermann captained the SMH team for a record three years, before signing with the Providence Falconers in 2015. He was given the A after just a few months with the team, and became the first openly LGBTQIA+ player in the NHL earlier this year when he announced his relationship with now-outgoing SMH captain, Eric Bittle]_

 **Jack has also been very open about mental health awareness. Rumor has it that this is another area you'll be following in his footsteps.**  
Yeah. I was diagnosed with bipolar when I was sixteen, so it's a topic pretty close to my heart. And so many people in our generation have mental health issues, so it's a really big deal. I remember one roadie we ended up in rooms of three so it was me, Will and Chow. We lined up all our medication and I think if I remember right we had about ten lots between us. _[_ _Of]_ course, some of that was vitamins or Tylenol or whatever but the point stands.

 **So are you and Jack going to do anything together to talk about these issues?  
** It's been discussed. I have to meet with Red Wings PR before I can commit to anything, though. They might want me to keep my head down the first year or so, before I start talking about all these things that were just avoided in the NHL for so many years.

 **How about playing against your former captain? Will that be strange?  
** Not just one former captain, and yes of course it will be, but I'm ready to start showing them up.

 **Right. You're actually the third Samwell student to go into the NHL in three years.**  
Yeah, that’s pretty crazy. We’re all in the same division, too, though maybe that makes sense, with it being this area. Holster _[Adam Birkholtz, who signed with the Boston Bruins last year]_ keeps going on about reunions and the All Star game, but I think he’s forgotten that there’s fifty other players they’d pick before they even considered putting rookies on the team. Hell, he was playing AHL this year, and I’ll probably end up in that same boat.

 **Maybe in the future, though!  
** Maybe. Who knows, we might have some more NHL prospects in the team. I already mentioned Chowder and Dex, but Whiskey _[Miguel Alves Guimaraes, rising junior]_ was drafted to the _[Philadelphia]_ Flyers _[in 2015, opting to play NCAA first to get his degree]_ , and I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one out of Tango _[Tony Gallegos, rising junior]_ and Kingsley _[Deonte King, rising sophomore]_ manage to sign. I’m sure we can get together a Samwell alumni team once there’s enough of us in the League.

 **I know you said you weren’t going to talk about William Poindexter, but can I ask how he feels about you signing before your senior year? Is it going to make him more or less likely to pursue a professional career himself?  
** He’s furious. Sure, there’s the two hour flight, and the fact that he’s New England through and through so he can’t physically let himself support a team that isn’t the Bruins or the Falconers, but mostly he’s pissed ‘cause he tried the jersey on and it clashes so horribly with his hair. He went darker than it when I pointed that out. He blushes to sort of Samwell red. As for how it is me going now instead of next year… It just means that we’ve been pushed into figuring stuff out a little earlier. I remember with Ransom _[Justin Oluransi, class of ‘16]_ and Holster, it was really strange watching them try and decide where they were going to go, when they were both trying to make their own individual decisions and not affect each other’s but we all knew eventually they would try and stay in the same place as each other. I’m glad Will and I don’t have that to go through next year, anymore. He knows where I am for the moment. He also knows that it’s hockey and I could get traded at any time, so there’s no point him looking for jobs in Detroit just because that’s where I’ll be, because what if next season I’m in Arizona or somewhere instead? I can’t really say if he wants to go pro or not. I just can’t say.

 **Can’t because you don't know or because you're not allowed?  
** That’s a very blurry line.

 **If you did get traded, where would you like to go?  
** Hey, chill, I haven’t even moved out of the _[SMH frat]_ Haus yet. And it really will be good to be in Detroit. My sister lives there. But, if I have to pick one, I’d like the _[New York]_ Rangers. Who doesn’t have a dream of playing for the team they grew up supporting? And it’d be ‘swawesome to live in Manhattan again. Or, either of the New England teams would be cool, both because of getting to play with former teammates again, and because Will might actually cheer me on.

 **So when you play the Bruins or the Falconers with the Red Wings…  
**_[He laughs]_ Yeah, Jack and Holster are gonna get all the support over me.

 **We normally reserve this question for commencing seniors but as you’re going to miss that, what’s your best memory of Samwell?  
** Oh, f**k. I don’t know, man. There’s too many to count. The SMH _[team]_ don’t believe in dull moments.

 **How about what you’re going to miss the most?  
** Graduation, for starters. _[He laughs]_. Ah, but Bitty _[Eric Bittle]_ ’s pies, and obviously all the team. I’ll still see them as often as I can but them not being right there in the same place will be strange.

 **And, finally, I think I already know what you’re going to say for this but who are your biggest Samwell inspirations?  
** F**k yeah, you know what I’m going to say. Every one of those boys from SMH are amazing. Some of them can be jerks sometimes, but they’re great. Jack Zimmermann went and came out in the NHL at the perfect time for me so he’s my hero. Larissa Duan _[class of ‘16, and former SMH team manager]_ is, like, the most amazing artist and one day we’re going to write a book together. Or, I’ll write and she’ll illustrate. Justin Oluransi, standing up for his own happiness, and proving that stereotypes are complete bulls**t. He’s the main reason I had the courage to go pro, so I owe a lot to him. Adam Birkholtz played B League Juniors when he was younger, and now has got himself into the NHL, and did you see his protest against Trump when the White House wrote all mention of Jews out of the Holocaust Memorial Day statement? What a legend.  
_[Birkholtz at protests in Boston in January can be found on all Samwell Daily social media pages]_  
Eric Bittle, was an openly gay NCAA captain before his boyfriend came out. He’s also 99% the reason I didn’t starve the past three years, and he learnt how to bake without dairy just for me. Shitty _[B. Knight, class of ‘17]_ who’s been there for me longer than anyone else besides my family.  
_[SD: Do you know his first name, then? DN: He has a first name?]  
_ And of course, my best friends, Chris Chow, Caitlin Farmer _[rising senior and incoming Samwell Women’s Volleyball team captain - see next week’s edition!]_ and Will Poindexter. I love all three of them in majorly different ways, and Samwell wouldn’t have been the same without them.

_With those touching words about some of Samwell’s biggest personalities, past and present, the interview is over. I thank Derek again for meeting with me, and he responds, with a wink, that it’s chill and that he didn’t want ESPN to get his first interview. His face lights up when he looks over to the door and sees the three people he just named as his best friends. They're all wearing Samwell athletics hoodies, and Will Poindexter holds one out for Derek who pulls it over the Red Wings jersey before stepping outside. He still has a few more weeks before trading crimson in for bright red, after all._

**Author's Note:**

> Also on tumblr [here](http://whatwouldlilydo.tumblr.com/post/157252492247/red-or-memories)


End file.
